Broken Hearted Beat
by Fly Pig
Summary: Rosabelle Dixon, Daryl's daughter, didn't know what kind of life she would have, or if she would even have a life at all, once the dead started walking. But what she knew for sure, was that she would have to fight with every ounce of her strength to keep on going. Especially so that she could protect the ones she loved. Follows Season 1-2.
1. Whatever

**A/N: This is my first Fanfic story. Please review. I don't own anything other than my OC and her story.**

* * *

"Where the hell am I goin'?" Her thick North Georgian accent even sharper than normal due to her exhaustion, and that small bit of fear that she is desperately trying to pretend isn't there. She looks around her at the ransacked stores and the abandoned streets that used to be the heart of Atlanta. With the sweltering summer sun scorching down on her copper brown hair, tied back in a pony-tail, she begins rummaging through her worn out knapsack.

"I know that damn book is in here somewhere," she mumbles under breath.

Finally finding it and pulling the small notebook out, she opens the cover and starts flipping through it. She continues walking down the street with her nose in the book, trying to find the page that she is looking for and paying little attention to her surroundings. That is, until she hears the moans and shuffling that could only be made by one thing. The Walkers.

Looking up, she sees about a dozen of them, clothes and flesh torn and rotting, coming at her from the left, so pulling her compound bow from her side, she flees to the right. As she rounds the corner all she can see is a wall of abandoned cars and walking, rotten flesh. That's what she has to see them as now, just flesh, not people. If she thinks of them as what they once were, she wouldn't be able to do what needed to be done. Turning back around, she quickly realizes that she's surrounded. Dropping the book and pulling an arrow out of the quiver on her back, she begins to fire at the heads of the moving corpses around her. Soon she determines that she would have nowhere near enough arrows to take them all down. Not ready to give up just yet, she trades in her bow for the hunting knife at her hip. She makes quick work of the Walkers closest to her, but finds she still isn't able to keep up with the masses surrounding her. She's beginning to think that this was going to be it, the end. Then she hears a voice call out of nowhere.

"Hey, Princess!"

Still fighting of the dead, she quickly looks around trying to determine where the mystery voice came from.

"Princess! Over here!"

Looking over to where the holler originated from, she saw a young Asian man in a baseball cap waving at her from the fire escape in the nearby alley.

"Come on!" he yelled again.

Figuring that going to him was her only chance, she begins to run towards the alley, stabbing decomposing heads as she goes, trying not to look into the faces that were once living people. Reaching the base of the fire escape, with the Walkers fast on her tail, she realizes that the ladder leading up to the platform, where the man is standing, just so happens to be missing and the platform itself is a good 4 feet above her 5'0 height.

"I can't reach!" she exclaims, traces of fear evident in her voice, as she looks between the Asian above her and the hoard of dead approaching from behind.

"Jump!" he yells while kneeling on the platform and reaching a hand down to her, "I'll catch you. I swear."

Knowing that this was it, either trust this stranger to catch her or get devoured by the dead now mere feet away from her, she sheathed her knife, extended her arms and jumped. For a brief moment she thought that she was going to fall back to the ground, where decaying creatures would be quick to grab her, and then she felt his hands grip her own and begin to pull her up. As soon she could reach the platform, she begins to pull herself up. Once up, the young man grabs her arm and quickly pulls her up the stairs. When they reach the top floor of the building he pulls her through an open window, into what appears to be an empty loft with blankets and food cans scattered across the floor. At that moment, she pulls herself out of his grasp, notches one of the few arrows she has left into the compound bow still hanging from her side, and aims it at the now very shocked and confused looking man.

"Jeez, Princess! What are you doing? I just saved your ass!" he exclaims, hands lifted above his head in surrender.

"That don't mean I gotta trust you. I don't even know who the hell you are." her voice still quivering slightly from fear, no matter how hard she tries to hide it.

"Look, I'm not even armed." his voice trying to be as reassuring as it could, with an arrow still pointed at his head. "Just take it easy, Princess."

"Well, that's just dumb. You should at least have a knife or somethin'," she says finally lowering her weapon back to her side cautiously, "And why the hell do you keep callin' me Princess? Do I really look like a princess to you?" looking down at herself and then back up to him with a sarcastic, yet puzzled look on her face.

Rubbing the back of his neck, the man begins to sheepishly explain. "I saw you from up on the roof. You were walking with your nose in that book and with that outfit you have on, well, you reminded me of that princess from that movie. Beauty and the Beast."

Examining her outfit, consisting of a once white shirt, now covered in dirt, sweat and blood, a denim vest, that was most likely a coat once upon a time, blue jeans and black cowboy boots, she figures out what he was referring to and begins to laugh. "Ya mean Belle? Well, that's slightly ironic I guess."

"Why's that?"

Chuckling she replies, "Rosabelle Dixon, at your service. Most people call me Rose or Rosie, but if you want to stick with Belle, than go right ahead."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Belle. Honestly, it's a pleasure to meet anyone. I haven't seen a living person in at least a week." Sinking to the floor he exclaimes, "I'm Glenn Rhee by the way."

"So, you on your own too?" Rosabelle asks.

"Yeah, have been since the beginning." Glenn replies, "Belle, how old are you? You look to young to be out here on your own."

Turning her back and walking to a window she answers, "I'm 14, and I don't really have much choice about my circumstances." Rose walks back to where Glenn is sitting and takes a seat beside him. "I was separated from my dad, grandfather, and my Great-Uncle Jesse about two days ago now. We were headed into Atlanta, from the mountains, to meet my uncle at some tweaker's house that he was holed up in. We had set camp for the night along the road and Will, my grandfather, and Jesse went into the woods to get us somethin' to eat. Not long after that, we heard screams comin' from the direction that they had gone in. My dad went after them, hell knows why, and told me to stay where I was. Within a few minutes of him takin' off, the damn Walkers showed up at the camp. I tried to stay and fight but it was no use, so I grabbed my bag and bow and I ran. Once I was away from those corpses, I knew there wasn't much point of heading back to the camp, so I kept walkin' to Atlanta to find my uncle. I knew that if my dad had made it out he would be headin' there too." She pauses for a moment to try and stop the tears that were threatening to escape her sharp grey-blue eyes.

"You know that book that I had?" She says suddenly. Glenn nods to her in affirmation. "That book had the address of the tweaker's house in it. And you know what; I dropped that damn book out there, in the middle of that disgusting mass of Walkers. There is no way in hell I'm ever gonna find that house now and now there is a shit chance of me ever seeing my family again. God dammit!" she stops out of breath, with tears streaming down her cheeks, trying to desperately wipe them away with her hands.

Glenn sat there for a moment and then took the girls much smaller hand in his own. Rose tries to pull away at first, but gives up without really trying. She likes the feeling of having a living person so close, even if she doesn't know him from Adam. They sit there for a few moments in comfortable silence.

"Well…, I suppose since neither of us has anybody else to look out for us, we could… you know… be like each other's family." Glenn awkwardly stammers out, "I haven't had anyone since I left my parents and sisters in Michigan a year ago, and I wouldn't mind having a ... you know…little sister again."

Rosabelle slowly looks up with a small, sad smile forming on her face. "I don't think I would mind having a big brother too much either." She begins to softly laugh then, "Even though you are a Chinaman."

"I'm Korean!"

"Whatever!"


	2. Chocolate

Chapter 2: Chocolate

The sun was just beginning to filter in through the blanket covered windows of the third floor loft. Scattered across the open space were empty cans, food wrappers and torn and dirty clothes. In one corner of the room, a small pile of empty food cans, and a couple of partial water bottles sat, waiting for the occupants of the loft to drink them. In another corner, curled up on a pile of blankets and clutching a piece of pipe, slept one of the two occupants. A young Korean man with a baseball cap pulled down over his eyes. The other occupant, a young teenage girl with a long braid down her back, sat peering out the bottom of the covered window, fiddling with the strap of the compound bow in her arms. Looking across the room at their almost non-existent pile of goods, she realizes, with great disdain, that they are going to need to go on a run today to pilfer for more supplies. With great reluctance, she hauls herself to her feet and makes her way to the sleeping figure in the corner, while thinking about the last run they went on a few days ago.

 _Flashback_

 _"Glenn, give me a boost here," Rosabelle whispers out, standing below a small high window in a back alley, "There might be something we could use in there."_

 _Glenn links his hands together and bends down. Rose steps into his hands and he lifts her up, her head and shoulders now above the windows ledge. Cupping her hands around her eyes and pressing her face to the glass she peers into the dirty window._

 _"What do you see, Belle?" Glenn asks, voice strained with the effort of keeping the girl up._

 _"We are in luck, Glenny boy! It's a diner kitchen!" Rose says in excitement for the feast that they will potentially be having. "Plus, I don't see any of them damn Geeks in there either."_

 _Hopping down from Glenn's grasp, she makes her way over to the door that leads into the back entrance of the diner. Rose grabs the handle and pulls with no luck. The door is locked._

 _"If we can get that window open, do you think you'd be able to squeeze through? You could then let me in from the inside." Glenn quietly questions._

 _"I have a better idea," kneeling in front of the locked door, Rose pulls the bobby pins that are holding her long hair out of her face and quickly ties her hair up into a ponytail with the elastic around her wrist. She then begins to bend the pins and shoves them with great practice into the keyhole of the deadbolt on the door. After a few silent seconds, a small click is heard and Rose turns the knob with ease and pushes open the now unlocked door. "After you."_

 _Glenn looks at Rose with surprise in his eyes. "It kind of frightens me that you know how to do that, you know?"_

 _"What can I say, I'm a Dixon."_

 _Making their way into the kitchen, Glenn and Rosabelle begin to search through cupboards and shelves for anything of use. Not seeing anything of great interest, Glenn begins to head over to a door of the pantry on the other side of the clearly previously looted space, while Rose pulls herself up onto the large counter to check the higher cupboards. Pulling open a cupboard door and searching inside Rose excitedly exclaims, "Jackpot!"_

 _"What did you find?" Glenn calls out from the empty pantry door._

 _Turning around and holding up her prize with a grin on her slightly freckled face she states, "Chocolate!"_

 _"Chocolate?"_

 _"Yes, chocolate. I love chocolate!" Joy evident in the young teen's eyes, as she turns back around to search for more treats._

 _Chuckling softly, Glenn moves on to the next door realizing how easy it was to forget that his companion was still in fact a child. Yanking the door to what appeared to be a freezer open, Glenn let out a horrified gasp about a dozen reanimated corpses stand in front of him with claw-like hands reaching towards him and the smell of rot emanating from their snarling mouths._

 _"Oh my God!" Glenn cries out in fear. He takes a quick step backwards to try and avoid the grabbing hands but trips over the door frame and falls hard to the ground._

 _Hearing the snarls and the sudden cry from her 'brother', Rose jumps from the counter while stringing an arrow into her ever present compound bow._

 _"Glenn!" she cries out, seeing the man on the floor with a Walker leering over him and with many more of it's 'friends' close behind it. Rosabelle rapidly fires her arrow at the decomposing skull, while running to Glenn. The young man quickly grabs a piece of pipe lying on the floor and pulls himself to his feet using the shelf behind him. Wielding the pipe like a spear, he shoves the pipe through the heads of a couple of the Walkers nearest to him, as Rose continues to fire arrows into the crowd. Having cleared the Walkers that had already made it out of the freezer, Glenn grabs Rose's hand and pulls her towards the door to the alley. As they run, she grabs as many of her arrows as she can, out of the now permanently dead brains._

 _They sprint into the alley and slam the door shut behind them, leaning against it to catch their breaths._

 _"Glenn, you alright? You bit?" Rose asks still out of breath, but looking over her friend with worry in her voice._

 _"No, I'm fine. Are you OK, Belle?" He questions still gripping her small, calloused hand in his own._

 _"I'm good."_

 _The two stood there in silence for a moment longer, before they decided that they better get moving before more Geeks showed up. After a few minutes, Rosabelle suddenly stops in the middle of the deserted road, with a look of disappointment on her face._

 _"Belle? What is it?" Glenn inquires when he notices that she has stopped._

 _"I dropped my damn chocolate," she dejectedly says, pouting with her eyebrows furrowed._

 _Glenn starts to laugh and walks back to the girl he now considers a sister, throwing an arm around her shoulder, "Come on, Princess. We will find some more next time."_

"Glenn! Come on man, it's time to get up! Glenn!" Rose calls while shaking the shoulder of the sleeping man.

"What?" The now partially awake man grumbles out, rolling over to face the girl that just tore him from slumber.

"We need to go on a run remember. We are out of food and just about out of water." She states while pointing to empty cans in the other corner. Offering her hand to Glenn, she pulls him to his feet and the two each begin to pack their meager belongings into their backpacks just as they always do when they leave the loft. They climb out of the window and down the fire escape, Glenn jumping down off of the lowest platform and then helping Rosabelle down after him.

The pseudo siblings walk quietly down the Atlanta streets, weaving around abandoned cars with their weapons raised. "I'm gonna find some more chocolate today," Rose says with determination.

"I bet you will, Belle." Glenn agrees sarcastically.

"You bet your ass I will." She counters.

After walking for a few more blocks, the pair came across a large department store that they had looted from in the past. They loaded up their packs with as much food and water as they could and headed out the doors to make their way back to their loft. Moments after they stepped out into the afternoon sun they knew that they were going to be in big trouble.

Rosabelle and Glenn were standing in the middle of an intersection with a massive hoard of Walkers beginning to surround them. Raising their weapons in defense they, turn around to go back the way they had come from, only to see it being blocked off by the shuffling bodies. Standing back to back, the young team prepare to fight with everything they've got, but knowing deep down that there was no way they could make it out of this mess alive and unscathed. Sharing one last look, the two begin stabbing and shooting at the approaching Walkers.

Both continue fighting off the dead, calling warnings and defending each other. They managed to push their way back to building, allowing them to only have to watch three sides. Rose didn't think that they could last much longer, but she knew she couldn't give up. All of a sudden, out of the corner of her eye Rose could see something large quickly approaching. It was a van and it was plowing down all of the corpses in its way.

"Glenn, look! The van!" Rose exclaimed pointing at the approaching vehicle with her compound bow.

The van suddenly came to a stop in front of them and a bald black man hollered out of the open window, "Get in!"

"Go Belle, go! I've got your back!" Glenn yelled pushing Rose in front of him.

She quickly flung the passenger door open and jumped over the back of the seat to open the sliding rear door.

"Glenn, come on!" she screamed, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him in to the van as he threw his pipe at an approaching Walker. Sliding the door shut, she screams at the unknown driver, "Go!"

The older man takes off down the street, tires squealing and bodies flying. Rose looks down at Glenn lying on the floor of van and quickly throws her arms around the young Asian and he wraps his arms around her in return. Once they finish their relieved embrace, Rose climbs back into the passenger seat and looks over at the man driving.

"Thanks," she simply states.

"Your welcome. You two looked like you could use some help," he says sincerely making eye contact with Glenn in the rear-view mirror.

"You're right about that," Glenn sighed out, "I'm Glenn by the way, and that's Rosabelle. Thanks again."

"It was no problem. I'm Theodore, but everyone calls me T-Dog."

Looking out the window as they are rapidly exiting the city, Rose turns to the driver and asks "Where exactly would we be going, T-Dog?"

"I am with a group that has set up camp by a quarry just outside of the city. As long as you and Glenn don't mind, Rosabelle, I was going to take you back there with me. We have food and water, and we haven't seen any of those dead things up there." T-Dog answered.

Sharing a look with Glenn, she blurted, "Alright, we will check out this camp. But I ain't gonna make any promises that we are gonna stay. And call me Rose; I think I'm in trouble or somethin' when I hear Rosabelle."

"Alright Rose," T-Dog says, "I think you two will get along well with the group."

The group sat in thoughtful silence for the next few minutes, and then Rosabelle turned around in her seat to face Glenn in the back of the van with a cheeky grin on her face and a chuckle in her voice, "Hey Glenn, I told you I was going to find me some chocolate today."


	3. My Daddy's Eyes

Chapter 3: My Daddy's Eyes

Rosabelle was kneeling down in the back of T-Dog's church van as it sped along the empty highways leaving Atlanta. Glenn and her had joined the camp a little over a week ago and had been put in charge of runs, as the two of them had the most experience in maneuvering the overrun city. She had just finished changing into a new moss green tank top that she had found to replace the worn and dirty shirt she had been wearing, and was now looking at a small photograph that she had pulled out of her bag. The photo was of her, her dad and her Uncle Merle in front of the Georgia Guidestones.

Rose was standing between the two of them, with her dad's arm resting around her shoulders and surprisingly enough all of them had large smiles on their faces, even Merle. The picture was taken a few summers back, when the three of them had been on their way home from picking her uncle up from some small town drunk tank that he had gotten himself thrown into the night before. When they passed the sign for the Guidestones, Rose begged her dad to stop and after some persuading, mainly to her uncle, she convinced the older men to pull in. While there, Merle, who she now realizes was most likely still high or drunk, dragged over some poor tourist with a Polaroid camera to take the precious picture she now held in her hand.

"Hey Belle, you almost done back there?" Glenn calls out from the front.

"Yeah," she chokes out, quickly clearing the lump that had formed in her throat and gently placing the photo back in her bag. She then stood and slid into the passenger seat next to the young Korean. She gives her eyes a rub, to rid them of any excess moisture and turns to Glenn with a smile to break the tense air.

"Whatcha ya think?" Rose asks lifting her arms and looking down at the new shirt and fiddling with the little buttons that ran up the front, "Better than that old rag I had on before?"

"I would say! I think with one little pull that old thing would have torn in two," he chuckles out, with easy, comfortable silence then surrounding them for the continuation of their trip.

As they pull the van into the laneway at the camp, Rosabelle instantly notices a couple of very familiar looking new additions to the fleet of vehicles. A large black motorcycle and an old blue-grey Ford truck. The moment that Glenn stops the van, Rose flies out of the door towards the new vehicles. Shane, the leader of their camp, having heard the van pull up, comes around to meet the pair. Seeing Shane, Rose runs over to him.

"How'd the run…" Shane begins to ask.

"Where'd the truck and bike come from?" she interrupts him frantically.

"Just some new survivors we ran across," he answers nonchalantly, not noting the desperation in the girl's voice, "Did you get more food?"

Becoming desperate for answers, Rose grabs the front of Shane's shirt, pulling his face down closer to her own. "I don't give a shit about the damn food. Tell me, who the hell's truck and bike that is?"

"Jeez, Rose, chill out," he says pulling away from the girls grip. "Just a couple a redneck brothers we found out hunting in the woods. What's your issue?"

"Where?" she gasps out, afraid to hope that it could be them, "Where are they?"

"Last time I checked, at the picnic table."

The second the words leave Shane's lips, Rose takes off at a sprint to the table. She rounds the Cherokee that is the final car in the row, and freezes. There sitting in front of her, with his back facing her, was the one person she had desperately hoped to see again, but feared she never would. Her dad; with his torn off sleeves, demon tattoo peeking out from the shoulder, and the crossbow that he was cleaning in front of him, there was no mistaking it.

"Dad," she softly says, voice barely above a whisper and still in shock. Her dad's hands instantly froze and his head slowly rose, staring straight ahead of him and not moving another muscle.

"Daddy!" she cries out louder, emotion thick in her voice.

With that, Daryl spins around, eyes open wide staring at his lost daughter in complete shock. "Rosie," he quietly calls out while hastily rising from his seat. "Oh my God, Rosie!"

The father and daughter speed towards each other, tears of joy beginning to form in their matching eyes. Rose throws her arms around her dad's neck and he wraps his strong arms around her, falling to his knees with Rose cradled on his lap.

"I thought I lost you, Angel, I thought you were gone!" Daryl cries into Rosabelle's long hair, still holding her tight.

"I was so scared, Daddy," she sobs in his shoulder as he rubs his hand in small circles between her shoulder blades, just as he always has, to comfort her, "Please don't leave me again."

"Never, Angel! I ain't ever lettin' you go, Rosie!" Daryl chokes out past his tears.

For the next several minutes, the young girl and her father cling to one another oblivious to everything around them. The other members of the camp that had come over after hearing the exclamations, soon dispersed to allow the family to reunite in private.

Rose suddenly feels a large rough hand cup the back of her head, "Hey there, Lil' Bud."

"Uncle Merle!" she calls, standing and embracing her uncle, his arms wrapping around her small frame. Merle places a chaste kiss on the top of her head and releases her from his grip.

Turning around, Rose is pulled back into her dad's comfortable grasp. She leans into his chest listening to his strong heartbeat and inhaling the smell that belongs to him alone, cigarette smoke, string wax, and earth. She now knows that she is home.

* * *

The entire Dixon family had now been at the camp for a couple of weeks and were extremely grateful to be back together. Rose learned that Will and Jesse hadn't made it out of the woods all those weeks ago. Her dad wouldn't tell her what happened, but she knew it hadn't been good. Rose knew that she should feel some sadness for the loss of her grandfather, but she didn't feel an ounce of it. Even though her dad had never said anything to her, she has seen the scars on his back and had always noticed how her dad kept her away from Will as much as he could. Her dad and Uncle Merle also explained to her how they had found each other just outside of Atlanta and had been sticking to the woods ever since.

With the return of her dad and uncle, Rose found that she socialized with the group of survivors even less than before. Her family was rough, and she is fairly sure that majority of the others were a bit frightened of them. The only person other than dad and uncle that she regularly spoke to was Glenn, who had remained a 'brother' even with the return of her family.

That is what made it impossible for her to sleep right now, even though it was the middle of the night, since everyone that she considers her family is currently gone from the camp. Glenn and her Uncle Merle on a run to Atlanta, and her dad hunting for more food for the group. On any other occasion she would have been on the run or the hunt herself, but both parties refused to allow her to go as she was recovering from a bout a heat exhaustion that had struck her the other afternoon. She hated being left behind, and it took a lot of reassurance from all three men, that they would return safely before she would allow them to depart.

Currently, she is sitting outside under the starry sky, staring at the glowing embers in the fire pit, with one of her dad's shirts pulled over her own thinking about where her family is now. She suddenly hears twig snap to her left. Pulling out her knife and pointing it towards the source of the noise she sees a boy, a couple of years younger than herself, sleepily standing a few feet away from her.

"What are ya doin' out here, Kid? Do ya know what time it is?" she questions while sheathing her weapon.

"I had a bad dream and I couldn't fall back asleep. I saw you sitting out here so I thought that maybe I could sit with you. Is that OK?" Carl asks a bit nervously.

"Sure…why not. Just don't tell yer Ma alright?"

"OK" he says with some excitement, finding the older girl to be quite the mystery.

They sat in silence for a brief moment, before the younger child couldn't stay quiet any longer. "Where is _your_ mom? I've never heard you talk about her before."

Rose looks away from Carl and lowers her head trying to determine the best way to explain the situation to the young boy. She'd only spoken to the boy a few times in the past and she wasn't quite sure how to talk to the kid.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything. I know what it's like to lose a parent." Carl rushes out apologetically, looking sad and guilty.

Rose looks up quickly at the boy sitting next to her in surprise, "Oh, my mother ain't dead. Well… actually that's a lie, she might be, but I have no idea where she even is. Don't really care either."

"What do you mean you don't care?" Carl asks in shock, clearly thinking about how much he cares for his own parents.

"I've never met her, so I don't see the point in worryin' 'bout her since she obviously don't care 'bout me. Dad and her met at some bar and hooked up for the night. Nine months later she showed up at his door, handed me over to him and never looked back." She explains with no trace of anger or sadness in her voice.

"So, you mean you don't know anything about her?" Carl inquires, still obviously shocked about the situation.

"Nah, I know a couple of things about her. I know that her name is Amber Hallisey, 'cause it's on my birth certificate. And I'm also guessin' that she must look a bit like me, 'cause I don't really look like my dad or any of his family." Rose tells the boy. The two young people sit together quietly for a few moments.

"That's not true you know," Carl states suddenly, "you and your dad have the same eyes."

"Yeah Kid, I guess you are right about that. I do have my Daddy's eyes."


End file.
